Deciphering Inscriptions from St. Petersburg Buddhist Temple

Introduction. A number of research papers have dealt with the St. Petersburg Buddhist Temple. But some inscriptions from the interior of this cultural heritage have not been studied. Goal. The article deciphers Tibetan and Sanscrit inscriptions from the temple. The inscriptions situated on the front, porch, pillars and responds in the hall, on the plafond, door framing and altar niche in the prayer hall have become the material for this research. In addition, the paper analyzes the trace drawings of the inscriptions stored at the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the RAS – from the files ’Drawings and Sketches to the Project of the Buddhist Preaching-House in Staraya Derevnya, 11, Blagoveschenskay Street’ and ’Materials of the Buddhist Preaching-House Building Committee’ which include bills of companies, a letter by the Technical Department under city governor’s administration that allows to install a ‘Ganchjir’ on the front face, and drawings of emblems and inscriptions. Results. The paper provides transliterations and translations of the inscriptions supplemented with clarifying pictures. It comes to some conclusions and sets forth suggestions regarding who might have authored the inscriptions. Particularly, the work contests the fact that the temple be devoted to the deity of Kalachakra only. So, Chado Rinpoche, an ex-Abbot of Namgyal and Gyoto monasteries, denied the possibility of the quotations having been a part of any canonical Buddhist text, including those dealing with Kalachakra practices. He also suggested that the destroyed inscription over the entrance may have denoted the name of the temple but the author concludes this is highly questionable. Regarding the trace drawings prepared for the Buddhist temple at that period and found in two files at the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the RAS the following conclusion was made. The first inscription is the mantra Padmoshnishi (Tibetan pad ma’i gtsug tor) ‘om padmosṇīṣa vimale hūṃ phat’. It is traditionally placed over the entrance. The mantra might have been depicted on one of the temple floors, it might have been lost or else the inscription was never a part of the temple decorative design. The second inscription is ‘oṃ namo ratna trayāya’ ‘Bow to the Three Jewels’, and that inscription was also never found in the St. Petersburg Buddhist temple.

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